This invention relates to the technical sector of containers and packaging for the presentation and tasting of solid or liquid products.
The object of the invention is to produce plastic packaging or containers having one or more raised areas. Generally, in the technical field of rigid or semi-rigid plastic packaging, the raised area or areas are obtained by thermoforming. In a manner that is perfectly well-known to a person skilled in the art, thermoforming consists in heating the plastics material until it softens and in making use of this ductility to shape it in the cavity of a mould having the raised area or areas to be obtained. Under a cooling effect, the material solidifies enabling it to retain the desired shape.
Consequently, with this solution, the areas that appear raised on the outside of a container for example appear recessed on the inside of the said container, or conversely given that there is deformation of the material. In other words, this thermoforming solution does not allow any container with a completely smooth interior and an exterior having one or more raised or recessed areas to be obtained.
The aim of the invention is to overcome these drawbacks in a simple, reliable, effective and rational manner.
The problem that the invention proposes to solve is to produce a container of any geometrical shape whose interior is perfectly smooth, while all or part of the exterior may have one or more raised areas in the form of logos, drawings, writing, etc.
In order to achieve these aims, a method has been devised and perfected which, basically, uses a principle that is perfectly well-know to a person skilled in the art and is called IML, according to which a label generally made of polypropylene is directly placed in an injection mould. The label is embedded in the packaging by partially melting its inner face and generally serves to decorate all or part of the packaging.